Howard Dean: Donors are the ones to instill party discipline.

Crossposted at DailyKos

It is good to see people getting on board with the 50 State strategy. It is good to see Bill Clinton approve of what should have been being done for years in our party, building it up in all the states. Glad to see him aboard.

I am transferring many of my video tapes to DVD format, and last night I ran across Howard Dean's hour-long interview on Tim Russert's CNBC show in early October 2004. It was like a long sit-down, how are you, kind of conversation...Russert was genuine, Howard Dean was candid. I consider it one of his best at describing the goals he had for the Democratic Party, but he had not even run for chairman yet. I will keep that interview for sure.

One thing he said that stuck with me. He said you needed to "decentralize your campaign." He went on to expand that further, that we need to stop powering things from the top down in all areas. He said politicians needed to trust the people.

His talk of decentralizing led to the topic of small donors and their importance. I thought of an online interview he had about the same time.

This interview of his from 2004 at Mother Jones was a defining moment of how he feels about donors and their influence on the party as a whole.

Taking Back Democracy

MJ.com: But how do you instill that party discipline while remaining a big-tent party?

HD: I think, ultimately, the donors have to do it. The donors have to say, "We're not going to fund every single idea. We're only going to fund the ideas that we think are really important." Now what that's going to do is allow those who are really capable to get funding. And those who have strong grassroots efforts will get funding. Like ours, because we don't depend on big donors. Big donors are very helpful and we welcome them, but our real support comes from grassroots people who give small amounts of money.

This is a very important political statement, one that should not be forgotten.

DFA pretty much works on this premise now. Many of the DFA candidates are determined according to the level of local support.

This was a prescient interview, and this part about the 50 states is a classic. Again, this was before he ran for chair. He is most definitely following through on this idea.

MJ.com: You also talk about the need for Democrats to rebuild in the so-called "red states," where Republicans dominate.

HD: The idea that we should write off Texas or Mississippi is ridiculous. We need to be down there, and we need to be making our case. How are you going to get somebody to vote for Democrats if hardly any of them are running? We need to make the progressive case. White, Southern voters are the most abandoned people in America right now. They keep voting for these right-wingers who go up and stick it to them. Their college tuitions go up, their health insurance -- if they have health insurance -- that goes up, their jobs go to Mexico. White voters in the South ought to be voting Democratic, because that's their economic interest. That's why the Republicans always talk about guns, God, gays and abortion instead of health care, education, jobs and a moral foreign policy. Because they lose on those issues, and they win on divisive issues. But we can compete with that in the South. And we are; Democracy for America is. We're going to have some candidates in the South who are going to win.

So all party leaders are welcome on board the 50 state strategy. We all know that big money will still have the advantage for a long time to come. But not forever, and I think they are beginning to realize that big money does not necessarily buy votes anymore.

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